Yeast cells characterization through near-forward light scattering.

A light scattering instrument has been designed to allow an investigation of the spatial intensity distribution profile, due to the cells within, a liquid solution, in the near forward direction. The cells are illuminated by the light source, a collimated LED, and the light scattered is imaging with a SCMOS camera. By filtering the unscattered light due to the light source from the light scattering due to the cells suspension, in a detection angular range from 0° to ∼8°, and the experimental results of the angular distribution of scattered light is statistically averaged in order to obtain a good fit. The forward scattered light provides the information to count the number of cells per illuminated volume and their mean size, as well as the corresponding size distribution. The theoretical comparisons have been made with the experimental profiles using Mie theory, leading to the experimental scattering data to show a good agreement with theoretical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]